


I Still See You

by TheBringerOfPain



Category: RWBY
Genre: Best imagery ever I think, Challenge Accepted, Doomed Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Heavy Angst, I don't write love stories often, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry, Mute Neopolitan (RWBY), Winged it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 23:04:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16820239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBringerOfPain/pseuds/TheBringerOfPain
Summary: Roman Torchwick and Neo are caught in the rain and forced to seek shelter from it in an old apartment building in Vale, where they realize they have a lot more in common than they thought.





	I Still See You

**Author's Note:**

> This was an experiment of a story I wrote to see how well I can get creative with my words in a story about a common ship in the RWBY fandom. I normally don't write stories like these at all and I'm not even a big fan of them unless they tell a great story on top of selling a relationship. Let me know what you guys think but you're not gonna see a whole lot of stories like this from me.

_She’s so short, like she just stopped growing in her teens or something_.

These are Roman Torchwick’s thoughts as he walks alongside his companion, Neo, down a sidewalk in Vale.The clouds over their heads stir and moan as thunder leaks out, threatening to send down torrents of rain.The temperature in the air plummets and Roman shivers in response as he feels the skin on his ears tingle and twitch in response to the cold.Finally, the clouds relent and the rain falls, coating Roman.His white suit shrinks back under the weight of the rain and sticks to his skin in an effort to smother him.Roman pulls the cigar out of his mouth with an irritated grunt, impressed by the perseverance of the smoke drifting from the other end.

“Oh, wonderful,” Roman says, heaving a sigh.He eyes Neo next to him, who has her pink, stylish umbrella opened up over her head, which covers her half-pink, half-brown hair.There are white streaks through the pink side of her hair.Even her eyes mimic her hair’s colors, one eye being pink, the other brown.

“I don’t know if you can see this, Neo, but I don’t have any way to cover myself in this deluge,” Roman points out.

Neo smirks, a common thing she does when she’s amused.She doesn’t speak.She can’t.Roman doesn’t know why.Neo has never shown him why.He has wondered before if she actually can talk but just doesn’t want to.Roman has heard that some people had to lose something of theirs in order to gain access to their Semblance.Maybe this is the case with Neo.Maybe she had to lose her own voice in order to have control of her Semblance, which means she doesn’t value the ability to speak very much at all.

_Someone who values power more than anything, even something basic like talking.How driven._

Maybe, just maybe, someone cut her tongue out.Roman hasn’t seen any evidence of this being the case, but it’s not impossible.

Something starts to twist around his throat, forming a lump that feels like a golfball weighing down on his shoulders.It hurts.It makes it difficult for him to breathe.He holds back a gasp to avoid catching Neo’s curiosity.

“Neo,” Roman says again.

Neo takes Roman by the hand, an action that sends tiny jolts of electricity up his hand and through part of his arm.She pulls him along off the sidewalk and takes him into an apartment building, where they find themselves in a dimly lit lobby.The wood floor creaks beneath Roman as his boots tackle it.The _clip clop_ of Neo’s high-heels causes Roman’s head to spin nearly off his shoulders.The cold air is expelled and he feels an unusual amount of warmth in this apartment lobby.

The walls are brown and stained and there’s no one standing behind the counter.They’re alone.There’s a chandelier overhead emanating a flickering light.

“This place makes me feel like we went a hundred years into the past,” Roman says.He notices a scanner by the door meant for photo IDs, which no one uses anymore thanks to the technology that can scan ID numbers on scrolls.

“My grandfather had a photo ID for scanning,” Roman says.

Of course, Neo doesn’t say anything.Instead, the air is palpable.Despite not getting soaked in rain anymore, Roman still feels something else.Something that causes him to want to shrink back, find a place to hide, and never come back out.He doesn’t want to face what is clear in Neo’s features, burrowed deep in her eyes, her two differently colored eyes.Both her hands are clutching the cane of her umbrella and a deep frown mars her expression, as if she had just heard that a loved one has passed away.

“Neo,” Roman says.His face changes too.Something glazes over his eyes as if a veil is falling over them, separating them from the rest of the world.The rain falls harder outside, pounding away at the windows and threatening to break in and drown Roman and Neo, promising them both death before anything else can happen.

“You can’t talk—or won’t.I don’t know why I bother talking to you if you can’t talk back,” Roman points out.

Neo’s eyes widen and something scarlet permeates her cheeks.She shakes her head but Roman can’t tell what she means by it.Does she want him to keep talking?Does she actually enjoy it?

“I’m not good at these sorts of things.I didn’t really have anyone to talk to growing up besides my mother, and she died when I was young.Now I have someone, and she can’t talk back to me.Doesn’t it bother you that you can’t talk back when I speak up?”

Neo shakes her head again, and this time a tear falls from her pink eye, scarring the floor.She sits down on a chair by the staircase and drops her umbrella at her feet.Roman walks over to her, feeling his legs, both inside and out, trembling, wobbling, fighting to hang on.

“You want to say something to me,” Roman says, not as a question.He doesn’t need to ask.He knows.It’s all over her face, fighting and fighting and begging to break out, burst through.Find freedom where there was none before.Her small, frail form looks broken in the dim light and shattered amidst her grief.Tears are falling more freely down her cheeks now, wetting her pink collar.Everything about her clothes is the same, which is something Roman has never taken the time to really realize to the fullest extent until now.The white jacket with the pink interior, the brown pants, black gloves, and the black and white boots with the high heels.The brown corset she’s wearing hugs her hips, leaving very little to the imagination.A multitude of necklaces hang around her exposed neck and the jacket has a V-neck, exposing pale, rosy skin.

Something like fire eats away at Roman’s ears while his fingers feel icy, even within the safety of his gloves.It’s a violent mix of intense different feelings ranging from scalding hot to icy cold spinning in Roman’s body and his mind is racing as if it thinks it can escape Roman’s head out his ear.

Not until now did Roman ever see a girl and think she’s gorgeous.Truly gorgeous.Not one he would call ‘gorgeous’ just to flirt with the opposite sex.Though she’s silent, her face speaks a million words, and they’re all confessions both big and small.Confessions of past hurt, past trauma, unforeseen consequences, love, hate, and hunger for purpose, all these things smashing together to create and form a mess of a person.One who carries so much potential but stays crushed by the weight of loss.

Loss.The key word between them.The one that links the two broken shards they are together, creating one whole being.

With a hand that trembles and shakes and is in danger of missing its target, Neo reaches out and takes Roman’s.Roman gives in to the shock, the sensation, the lightning bolt poised to fry him and leave him helpless.Love is confusing.It makes no sense.It creates bonds and links that leaves a person never feeling the same again, and sometimes that person wishes he can go back to feeling that, but realizes he’s made too big of a difference in the life of another to just drop it all and run.Roman finds himself feeling this way.Wishing he’s alone again but knowing there’s no going back unless he truly desires to split Neo’s heart down the middle and watch it rot.

Out of Roman’s mouth comes words he never thought he’d say to anyone.

“You may not speak, but I still see you,” he says.

Neo’s eyes well with tears.They look like they sting.They look like they have the effect of a double-edged sword.Through the grief this sword impales, and the veil over Roman’s eyes gets burned away.

“I really do,” he finishes.

Roman’s other hand reaches for Neo’s shoulder.He can feel the muscleless skin under his palm.It’s delicate, soft, inviting, everything he needs to feel right now.He pushes himself to continue tracing his hand off her shoulder and down her arm until it meets her other hand.This one clasps harder this time.

Neo’s whole body trembles.

_From what?_

Is it anticipation?Fear?Anxiety?A little bit of all three?

“You need to give me a sign to know what you’re feeling, otherwise I think I’m just doing something against your will,” Roman says.

Neo lets go of Roman’s hands and throws her arms around Roman’s neck, silently crying into his shoulder.Roman doesn’t return her hug.He has feelings, yes, but hugging is not something that comes naturally to him.No tears come to his eyes but he’s still shaken.His knees wobble and he’s in danger of them hitting the floor under Neo’s weight even though there’s not much there to begin with.Finally, Neo pulls back, stares at Roman for several painfully silent seconds, then moves in and kisses Roman full on the lips.Every inch of Roman, both inside and out, catches fire and he feels like he’s drifting through muggy air.He kisses back, and he takes a deep breath.One single tear fogs up his eye, but it’s not for Neo.It’s not for whatever is happening here at this moment.He sheds this tear for his mother, whom he lost to a group of Faunus gangsters when he wasn’t old enough to lose her.He sheds it for this new person that has entered his life when he’s about ready to accept his position in life as someone who will always be alone.Someone who will always survive by lying, stealing, and cheating to get what he wants.

A crack of thunder claps outside but Roman and Neo stay like they are for a little while longer, until their lips are tired and they need to rest.They both pull back at the same time, and Roman takes in Neo’s eyes once more, witnessing most of the agony and pain from loss clear away like a drain swallowing all the water in a bathtub.Two differently colored eyes, each containing history.Each having seen just as much as the other.Roman traces his fingers through the brown side of Neo’s hair.

Though she’s fierce, quick, ruthless, and capable of standing up for herself in the eyes of so many people, she’s also vulnerable, fragile, and—human.Even with a power of her own to gain so much from, there are things she has lost that she grieves over, things she will never get back.

“You’ve lost things too.I know how that is,” Roman says.

After about an hour, the rain finally stops.A vague sense of dread falls onto the two of them, as they both simultaneously realize it’ll soon be time again to go back to what their employers wish for them to do.Roman knows that the city outside will soon be swarming with Grimm, and this apartment will most likely be reduced to nothing but a memory, a memory cherished only by him and Neo.

_Well, at least Vale got to be good for_ something.


End file.
